Preservice Teachers Experiencing Mathematics at STEM Festivals

• In Event: Crown Plaza Roundtable Session 8
  In Roundtable Session: How Teachers' Informal Learning Experiences Relate to Practice and Identity

Abstract

Objective/Rationale: Informal learning experiences in mathematics are an underutilized and under-researched topic in mathematics education. This study described how the behavior of attending and volunteering at a STEM Festival supported the development of elementary preservice teachers’ interest and engagement with mathematics.
Methods: Phenomenology offered an approach with enough flexibility to address the complexity of this informal setting. A phenomenological approach described the experience of six elementary preservice teachers attending and volunteering at a STEM Festival.
Results:This STEM Festival was a transformative participant experience that created interest in mathematics as engaging, interdisciplinary, multilayered, and relevant. Creating this kind of experience with mathematics situated outside of the classroom offered an alternative view to mathematics as a gatekeeper and marginalizing force.

Author

• Alice E. Petillo, Marymount University